You Make A Difference
by Yylaayl
Summary: “I just wanted to thank you, Alex, for making such a big difference in my life. I could never wish for a better friend.”-Tom. Rated K for really brief mention of suicide.


**Title: You Make A Difference**

**Summary: "I just wanted to thank you, Alex, for making such a big difference in my life. I could never wish for a better friend."-Tom**

**AN: The beginning might be a bit boring, but please give my story a chance. There is no action/adventure in this story, but it's a little bittersweet. Some of the things I put in might be a bit incorrect because I live in America and not in Britain. Also, I haven't gotten the chance to re-read the Alex Rider books ever since the beginning of summer. There's another author's note at the end, and it's just a bit of background information about the story so I would appreciate it if you would read that too. Anyways, thank you and I hope you enjoy reading!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Alex Rider, Anthony Horowitz** **does. If I owned Alex Rider, the fight scenes would be terrible, there would be no action, no one would read it, and it would be 2 pages XD **

The bell rung at Brookland Middle School. It was the last day of school until the autumn, when school would start again. Students were rushing into the hallways, trying to open their lockers as fast as possible, and rushing out the doors, screaming.

Almost unnoticeable amongst the mass crowd of students was a boy talking to his friend. His name was Tom. His friend's name was Alex Rider. Yes, the Alex Rider, the druggie, the one that defeated the bullies a few years before. The boy that kept getting mysteriously sick during the school year, ever since the death of his uncle, Ian Rider. Alex Rider, the reluctant MI-6 spy that only a few people knew about. Alex had came back from another mission recently, and the rumors at his school about his new excuse "of swine flu" spread like wildfire. Some said that his "mysterious bout of sickness" was because he was in a fight with another gang for territory to sell drugs. That would explain the scrapes and bruises. There were many other excuses, some outrageously ridiculous, like the one where Alex was abducted by aliens and he had to fight to keep from being eaten.

One of the few people that knew what had really happened was Tom. He was Alex's best friend and had found out what happened after Alex had been shot outside of the MI-6 headquarters. He was a shoulder for Alex to lean on, for Alex to talk to after his missions. They helped each other out, as good friends should do.

"Hey, Alex, can I talk to you?" Tom said as quietly as he could over all the ruckus the other students were making. Alex simply nodded. He didn't have his bike, ever since a terrorist had followed him back from his mission had Alex had escaped on his bike, but not without having to leap off of the bike. The bike had crashed, and it was currently at a repair shop, so Alex had to walk home. The two left the building together, and Alex looked back at the building one more time. He wouldn't be seeing it for quite a while, until the school semester started again at least, and it was one of the few places he felt happy to be at. He fit in with all the other kids in his school, well, he used to, and he didn't mind doing all his homework, except catching up was a bit of a pain.

While Alex was out on his mission and out of school, Tom's English teacher had assigned them a simple project. That class, Tom and his classmates watched a video about another teacher who gave out ribbons to her students and told them about how they made a difference to her. One of the students had given it to a worker at a nearby company, for "Helping me decide on a career when I grow up." The student also gave the worker a few more ribbons. He asked the worker to pass on a ribbon to a person that he looked up to, and had made a difference in his life. Then, they were to give the rest of the ribbons to that person so they could pass those on too. The worker had passed his ribbon to his surprised boss. The worker also told his boss about the student's teacher's project and asked him to pass along a ribbon as well.

While driving back to his house, the boss thought about who to pass the ribbon to. He finally decided on passing it to his son. When he got home, he told his son about the project and gave him the ribbon. The boss's son started crying. He said that he had written a letter to him and his mom. He said he was going to commit suicide that night, after they were asleep. But now, after what his father had told him, the son had decided not to. The father found the letter and read about all the anguish and pain his son felt. The boss became a kinder guy at work, and told his workers how they had made a difference in his life. Everyone experiences pain and sorrow that no one else can understand. But thanks to a small act, someone decided he didn't want to die.

After watching the video, the English teacher handed out similar ribbons. They were to give them to people that had changed their lives and to do the same thing in the video.

It had been a while ever since Tom had received the ribbons, almost 3 months, in fact. They laid in his backpack to rot with whatever else he had in there. But now, he knew what to do with them.

The walk home was mostly silent. On the way home, Tom was thinking about how he was going to tell Alex. Suddenly, he stopped. Alex, who was walking behind him and wasn't paying much attention, bumped into him and knocked him over. "Sorry, Tom." Alex said, as he helped Tom up. "Alex, I have something to tell you." Tom stared into the eyes of the sky before starting again. "I just wanted to thank you, Alex, for making such a big difference in my life. I could never wish for a better friend. During English, we learned about this boss who stopped his son from committing suicide by giving him a ribbon and telling him he made a difference in his life. Mrs. Morris* said she wanted to do something similar. So please, take the ribbon!" Tom fished around his pocket before finally finding one. He handed it to Alex, who looked at Tom incredulously before taking it. The ribbon said, in simple gold letters, "You Make A Difference!"

Alex stared at Tom as he helped Alex pin it on his shirt. Alex said "Are you saying that you think I'm going to commit suicide?"

Tom stuttered. "N-no...yes...no... not really, but that's just what happened in the story."

Alex smiled. It was a real smile, unlike the ones he gave his classmates. It was a smile that Tom rarely ever saw anymore. It was a smile that made him want to smile too.

The rest of the walk home was silent. When the two reached Alex's house, as his house was on the way to Tom's house, Alex stopped at the door before opening it. Jack, his housekeeper, was out grocery shopping, so he would be at home alone. "Hey, Tom?" Tom, who had been walking down the doorsteps of Alex's house, stopped and turned around. "Yeah?" Tom said.

"Thanks. For the ribbon as well as for being such a good friend." Alex said. As Tom started turning around.

"Oh, and Tom?" Alex said again. Tom was getting a bit annoyed with the interruptions, but turned around anyways. "What?" he said again.

This time, Alex smirked. "Don't ever try to give a speech ever again." At this, Alex went inside to his house. Tom, who was left at the doorstep, muttered, "Oh shut up."

THE END.

**AN: And that's the end of it ^^ **

**Well, that was my first story. As far as I know, the story is real. The video is real, and a link to view it if you want to is on my profile. Reviews would be nice, but I also appreciate the fact you read my story as well ^^**

**During a club called Junior Civitan after school in my school, we watched the video today. Junior Civitan is about helping other people in communities and organizations in the area. So, we did something similar to what happened in this story and in the video that we watched. In school, we received blue Livestrong wrist bands to give to people. The title of the story was named after the words on the bands. The story was sad and happy at the same time and had a huge effect on me. I wanted to share this with other people out there in the world, and what better way than in a story? **

**So maybe after this, you might tell someone that greatly affected your life and let he or she know how much you appreciate it because sometimes, they don't know it. **

**This is my first story, and it's a one-shot and will probably stay a one-shot. I wrote this story to tell the reader about how you can make someone feel better in a more interesting way. I have a few other ideas for stories, but I'm not completely sure about writing them or putting them up. I also have a really bad habit of not finishing stories I started. But if you really want me to continue writing for FanFiction, please drop a message or review. You can also suggest any stories to me that you think I might like that I haven't read yet(most stories that I've read are on my favorites list). And like I said before, reviews are greatly appreciated :3 Constructive criticism is nice, comments are appreciated, and flaming is not, though I can't really stop you.**

**So thank you again and hope to see you around ^^**

***By the way, Mrs. Morris is made up just so you know. **


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